TP2000 Chapter 4

This chapter was about instruction in middle schools.  The three most important aspects of instruction, according to the book, are: curriculum, assessments, and students.  Reading this chapter, however, I felt like I've already learned a lot of things covered in the chapter through other education classes.  The chapter talked about Differentiated Instruction, WHERETO, and the six facets of understanding, which are all things that I have already learned about.  I think that this was a good chapter, but I think that it was kind of redundant, because I know a lot of what was covered.

Turning Points 2000 Chapter 6

This chapter was about building relationships with students.  I loved it.  When I was in middle school, I didn't really have a teacher that I had a great relationship with.  Well, when I was in 8th grade, I had a pretty good relationship with my Social Studies teacher.  And I really liked that class as a result.  But he was really the only one.  And I think I suffered because of it, because I kind of became shy and scared socially as a result.  But I think if I had more teachers that really tried to get to know me, I would have been happier.  So in my classroom, I'd try to get to know each and every one of my students.  But this chapter itself focused on teams in middle schools.  I personally did not go to a middle school with teams, so I don't know what it would be like to have them.  But through this class, and learning more about the concept, I think that it's a really great concept, and I would like to try it!

MMM Chapter 15

This chapter was about getting parents involved in the classroom.  This, I think, is one of the most difficult parts about being a teacher.  One, because you have parents who will not care about their child's performance in the classroom.  And two, because you will have parents that have extremely different opinions on what their child should or should not learn in school, and will fight with you.  Wormeli gives several ways you can get parents involved with their children's education.  For the most part, I thought these examples were good, but I think that I would be uncomfortable visiting the home of a student.  I feel like as a teacher, that is a place where I should not go, because I feel like that crosses a line of professionalism.  But that's my own opinion.  As a teacher, I would love to get parents involved, because I think that opens a whole world of possibilities in the classroom!

MMM Chapter 8

This chapter was about effective assessment.  The chapter opened with a story about a student of Wormeli's that wasn't very good at writing, so he let the student write a song about The Outsiders instead of writing an essay.  I love this.  But for me, I would rather give students a choice on every project.  In my opinion, I would rather let students have a choice for every project they do in school.  I think students are definitely creative enough to come up with ways to show what they know, instead having a teacher tell them what to do in order to show what they know.  This chapter kind of goes along with the Differentiated Instruction chapter, I think.  Both have to do with tailoring a lesson or project to the particular student you are teaching.  Both, I think, are very helpful to students, and both are things I really like!

MMM Chapter 7

This chapter was about Differentiated Instruction.  I have learned about Differentiated Instruction in a lot of my education classes here at UMF.  It's something that I really support, and I think teachers should utilize it a lot more in classes.  Not every student learns the same or wants to learn the same, and teachers continue to teach the same.  I think teachers need to be more aware of that, and they should use it more often.

MMM Chapter 6

This chapter was about Accountability.  One part of the chapter that I really liked was this quote, "Instead of letting students complete additional projects to raise their grades, ask them to revise their additional work based on the standards outlined in your rubric or the comments written in the margins of their papers."  In my opinion, as a teacher, there is a reason why you assign certain assignments.  That reason is that you want students to learn what the assignment is on.  If you let students get a bad grade, and then you let a student do a different assignment later in the year, then they won't learn what you originally wanted them to.  Why not let a student revise their work?  In classes such as English and History classes, we let students revise papers, so why not let them revise other work too?  If we let students revise work, then they will learn the material a lot better.  And that's the final goal right?  To get students to learn the material?  I'm all for creative ways to get students to learn material.  The most common way to hold students accountable for learning material is tests.  And I think that's boring.  We need more creative ways to get students to learn!

Meet Me in the Middle Chapter 3 Synthesis

This chapter was about brain research, and applying that to teaching middle school.  The beginning of the chapter focused mostly on helping students make memories, so they can remember the material they are learning.  The chapter also talked about how important emotions can be for young adults, and how we, as teachers, can use this to our advantage, and use emotions to help students learn.  Another thing this chapter talked about was helping students think for themselves, and be have reasoning and logic skills, and Wormeli provided a list of argument fallacies that students can recognize.


Most of the students in class liked this chapter.  We all pretty much agreed that, at this age, children are going through a lot of changes, and need their minds and brains taken care of, as well as their bodies.  Most students pointed out that we need to cater to students' emotions, in addition to teaching them academic stuff.  And we also liked how Wormeli talked about how we need to teach students to think on their own, and use their brains to learn.